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Health Club as a Business in India

What is a Health Club?

A health club is a place that has exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. There are a number of areas in a health club, which are as follows:-

Main Workout Area– This area consists of free weights including dumbbells, barbells, stands, benches and exercise machines which use cables, gears, etc. There are numerous mirrors in this area so as to provide the client with different views of themselves while exercising, so they may correct their posture.

Cardio Area– This area includes various cardiovascular related machines such as rowing machines, stationary exercise bikes, elliptical trainers and treadmills. This area is equipped with numerous television sets and music systems which helps in keeping the clients entertained while working out. Apart from this, many health clubs provide the clients with various magazines and newspapers too.

Sports Facilities– These are the fun part of a health club. It has various sports facilities such as swimming pools, squash courts, indoor running tracks, etc.

Personal Trainers– There are a number of trained and qualified personal trainers available in the health club. Clients need to pay a few extra bucks for hiring personal trainers. These trainers assess their clients’ physique and design the workout schedule as well as the nutrition plan. Moreover, when you hire a personal trainer, he/she will watch you throughout your workout!

Other Services– There are a number of other services offered by a health club; these include- snacks bar, steam room, sauna room, restaurants, beauty salons, etc.

So, these were the services offered by a health club. Now, the question arises, what is the difference between a gym and a health club. There are a number of cases when these terms are used interchangeably but both of them have a specific meaning attached to them.

Difference between a gym and a Health Club

These are one of the most confused terms in the history of fitness. There are a number of differences between both of them.

A gym is a place which is favorable for a bodybuilder or one who needs to build a muscular physique. On the other hand, the atmosphere of a health club is pretty casual; people just want to be fit.

Gym has only a limited number of facilities and amenities, a health club outnumbers the gym in these. Gyms are of various types, there are specializations in the case of the gyms. On the other hand, a health club is more generalized and have various sections that help and individual to reach the peak of their fitness.

Opening a Health Club

There are a number of things that you must keep in mind before stepping in this business. Some of them are as follows:-

Finance– Finance plays an important role in opening of any business. You need to get finances ready; before this, you need to set up a proper business plan which can be executed as well as presented before the financers. If you’re going for finance, then you need to check the average cost of opening a gym, I’m not specifying it here because it depends on city to city and even on different areas in the city. After securing the finances by personal means or by getting the funding from the financers, one needs to think of the different machineries one needs to buy and the hiring process of various trainers.

Survey before picking location– One needs to thoroughly go through various locations available before selecting one. Moreover, a health club require large amount of land, so one needs to keep a check on their business plan and decide the place accordingly.

Consider the licensing requirements– You need to go through the licenses required to own a gym. The registrations required for opening the gym are- service tax registration, SSI registration, clearance from police department and gym registration.

Understand the value of insurance– Many people inside your premises are going to be indulged in many harmful activities. Many will go for the use of drugs and steroids which can lead to severe loses, other are going to be indulged in high-intensity exercise which may be unsafe for them. So, one has to be sure that he has insurance which they can rely on in case of any lethal accidents.

Hire Wisely– Hiring your employees is another important factor that can make or break your health club. You don’t only need qualified and certified trainers but also sports experts who can help your clients with various sports activities available in your health club. For a health club, you need numerous instructors for department of your health club. Apart from this, you need good chefs, masseurs and therapists too!

Give offers during the early stage– You should always provide your customers with some advantage over the other gyms. You have to provide the membership at lower prices as compared to your competitors.

Now, coming to the options you have got while opening a health club:-

Opening health club as an individual– If you decide to open a health club as an individual, you yourself have to take care about the entire place, its maintenance, etc.

Opening health club with a partner– Having a partnership in the health club is a big step. You need to be well aware of the person you’re going to be partner with. You should neither be too friendly to them nor entirely unknown to them. Being too friendly will put you both at a disadvantage while dividing the profits in an unbiased manner. You both shouldn’t be entirely unknown to each other because that would result is conflicting decisions regarding the business as you don’t know the level of compatibility between both of you.

Taking a franchise– Taking a franchise is a lucrative option now-a-days as it has a lower risk of failure. This is so because only well-known health clubs give away franchises and the probability of failure of big chains is way too less.